Cracked Armor
by Omega Overlord
Summary: sequel to Armored Emotions. Our two heros face trial after trial together. Will they ever have any time to themselves


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the actual characters of Halo or Metroid portrayed within.

Author's note: If you haven't read 'Armored Emotions' most of the events within will not make sense.

Phase 1: The New Crisis

John 117, the Master Chief, walked at a brisk clip in the direction of the bridge. Samus Aran about a half-step behind. The both of them had just shared a… John wasn't quite sure what to call it. But they had shared it just now in his quarters. Samus could never fully replace all of those he had lost but she went a good deal of the way to giving him a reason to live other than mindless war. When she kissed him… it felt like a million volts of electricity had shot through him in half a second. He walked through the door to the bridge and took in the layout; Captain Cutter was hunched over a holographic representation of some kind of city and the ship's AI, Serina, was on the opposite side.

Cutter looked up from the hologram, "Chief… Samus… good that you're here. We've lost contact with our capital city, and what with all the recent attacks from the space pirates and brutes we can only assume that this is more of their handiwork."

John nodded, "do we have any intel from the city?"

Cutter shook his head, "not much… we have a security report, some screams, and… something else."

John gestures to Samus, "can we hear it?"

Cutter nods, "of course, you have the right to know what you're going to be up against. Serina, play it."

The AI complies and an audio recording begins, "_This is chief security officer Katie Bona… three hours ago some… 'Things' started coming out of the vents. They started attacking people, latching onto them and… I've never heard people scream like that. Now everyone else is dead… my family, my kids… my daughter was cooing to one of them like it was a puppy and… and it… (sobs)… I managed to kill one of them, took every bullet on me to put down one. The things look like floating jello molds… Now I'm in this substation of the comm arrays sending this distress call, maybe someone can arrive before (loud metallic knocks are heard) oh god… no, no, NOOOO!!!!"_

Serina comments, "How very ominous…"

Samus listened to the recording with a ball of dread growing within her. In her mind there was only one thing that fit the short description of the person on the recording… Metroids. Once the former dominant species of the planet SR388 she had been hired by the GF years ago to exterminate them, she had found the last infant metroid and had been unable to bring herself to kill it. Since then the space pirates had been using the metroids they created in obscene ways, from trying to train them to using them as portable generators.

Her voice came out drenched in dread, "I think I know what the pirates have unleashed… metroids."

Serina gave her an odd look, "come again???"

Over the next few minuets she shared the details of the metroids and her rather colorful history with them. Including how quickly they could evolve if exposed to beta radiation.

Serina highlighted a section of the holographic city, "if that is true then we have a problem. This lab here was conducting experiments with beta radiation; there is an emitter in there that can put out enough radiation to kill a human in sixty seconds. How much radiation is necessary to force the evolution?"

Samus shook her head, "I don't know the exact figure, but background radiation was enough to change a larval metroid to mature form in a matter of days."

Cutter looks concerned, "so what you're saying is that we don't have very long until we have genuine monsters on our hands?"

Samus nods, feeling what was going to happen next.

John moves over to the hologram, "then we'd better get down there soon."

She smiles to herself beneath her visor; John was dedicated to helping people regardless of what it cost him. Of course, that was why she loved him.

John ran to the armory, grabbing a shotgun and an assault rifle, before making the run back to the hanger where Samus was waiting for him.

Just as he was about to open the door Serina appeared on a monitor next to the lock, "just a second Chief, I'm going with you."

He opened a com channel to the bridge, "Captain… is Serina really coming along?"

Cutter sighs over the com, "Unfortunately yes, I know the two of you don't get along but the admirals say that we need footage of these creatures and the best way to kill them. Serina can record what you see and bring that information back."

With a grunt of affirmation he closed the channel and removed the neural implant from the back of his helmet, "understand Serina, you are along to observe only. Am I clear?"

Serina gives a derisive huff, "I hear you."

John plugs the implant back in and feels a familiar sensation of liquid mercury in his brain.

Serina comes in over the com, "very nice… I can see why Cortana liked it in here…"

John sees Samus wince even through her armor, he had told her about what had happened to Cortana and… she knew him well enough now to understand what it meant when 'someone' felt like bringing his past back to haunt him.

His voice carried more anger than he would have liked as he tapped the implant, "Serina…"

The AI got the message, "ok I get it!"

John opened the door and was surprised to see Wallace Green waiting in the hanger with a sniper rifle slung over his back and a brute shot held awkwardly by the handle behind the blade. Samus and he had saved the pirate's crew from a small planet on the edge of UNSC space before slipping home.

Wallace saw the both of them and gave a hearty shout, "ahoy there! When are we leaving?"

He looked over at Samus, she shrugged (which, with the size of her shoulder plates, gave the impression of two mountains trying to pummel each other). Apparently she had not invited the pirate either…

Wallace set the blade of the brute shot against the deck, "… neither of you sent the message did you…?"

Serina uses the speakers on his suit, "I sent the message. Recently I pulled your pirate friend's file; he was ONI's best hacker until he assaulted a superior officer."

Wallace looks livid, "OY, those were trumped up charges! The slimy bastard was amusing himself with my fiancé; she committed suicide out of shame! I get kicked out and he becomes a successful combat officer, I hear that he died a hero."

John can tell that Wallace wasn't lying, "who was it?"

Wallace sneers, "A snake by the name of James Ackerson, I also hear that you and he didn't get along either."

John feels his mouth twist into a smirk, "that's putting it lightly."

Ackerson had attempted to kill him years before just after he had been upgraded to shielded Mark 5 armor. Needless to say, Ackerson had failed.

Wallace laughs, "So? Am I coming or not?"

John gestures to the pelican, "get in, strap in, and hold on."

Wallace picks up the brute shot and clips on a bandolier of grenades, "I'll be a waitin for you."

John gave Samus a lift up into the hold of the pelican before loading the only available warthog the Spirit of Fire had, a transport hog. He would never admit that he felt uncomfortable about driving an unarmed vehicle into a hot zone with only two passengers. On the Tsavo highway he had driven a transport hog with four marines and it had still taken every erg of his skill to get through alive. In fact, once they had gotten through the brute blockades one of the marines had commented that he must have been raised 'in the hood', whatever that meant. He locked the warthog into place and wondered how effective Samus's laser would be should they run into brute choppers… He sealed the hold and strapped himself into the pilot's seat. On the hold camera he saw Wallace give him a thumbs up, after a similar, albeit tentative show from Samus he threw the lever, causing the pelican to plummet out of the Spirit of Fire. John could literally feel the waves of nauseas emanating from Samus; he really didn't blame her for it though. It had taken him a few weeks of the same before he had gotten used to the rapid lurch in gravity… and he had a knack for ignoring his own physical discomfort. Samus was quite literally getting a crash course in it.

Wallace almost seemed to be enjoying the drop, "WHOOOO!!! I REALLY SHOULD DO THIS MORE OFTEN!!!"

John just shook his head after hearing the pirate's outburst.

Serina spoke inside his head, "Chief, you need to land at least a mile outside of the city. The anti-air defenses are malfunctioning."

He opened a private channel with the AI, irritation coloring his voice, "and why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

Serina seemed put off by his words, "well… um… you didn't need to know yet."

John paused for just a moment… and pulled the neural implant, "Serina… shut up."

The rest of the flight passed in peaceful (or almost peaceful, Wallace was still shouting like a madman) silence. John landed the pelican, released the warthog, and plugged Serina back into his helmet. When he walked around the pelican to where the hog was waiting he saw that Wallace had taken a seat on the right side of the passenger section, he had expected this. What he had not expected was Samus sitting behind the wheel.

Samus noticed his gaze and shrugged, "how hard can it be?"

John remembered his harrowing drive to escape from the first halo and the replacement ring, "…very."

Samus did not budge, "relax, if I flip the vehicle you can drive."

John smirked beneath his helmet, full knowing that an inexperienced hand on the wheel of a warthog was a disaster waiting to happen. Samus put the pedal to the floor and sent the hog rolling down the road at close to maximum speed.

John saw the turn approaching, "…turn."

Samus took her eyes off of the road to look over at him, "what?"

John fastened the seatbelt and grabbed the crossbar over his head, "turn right!"

Samus slams the wheel to the right without letting off the gas. The warthog drifts neatly over the edge of the road. John was dimly aware that Wallace was thrown instantly; he and Samus were strapped into the seats as the hog rolled down the bank of the road some seventy feet down. The warthog came to rest upside down with the both of them looking into the dirt.

Samus's hand slowly rose to her visor, "…I guess… that you're driving now…"

John cut his seatbelt and flipped the hog over, "relax, it was your first time driving a hog… now where is Wallace?"

He was answered by loud coughing and sputtering from behind the hog, a drenched Wallace was dragging himself out of a conveniently placed pond.

Wallace climbed back onto the hog shaking water out of his brute shot, "I hate gettin wet…"

Samus apparently couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was odd… John knew that was probably the first time Samus had laughed in a very long time. It sounded, oddly enough, like some of the wind chimes he had heard while fighting through New Mombassa. John pushed the hog back up to the road after Samus had switched over to the passenger seat. He then took the wheel and expertly drifted the hog around every corner on the way to the city.

Phase 2: The Evil Twin

Samus was actually quite impressed with the speed with which Wallace hacked the gate lock. It took him about half the time it would have taken her scan visor to accomplish (granted that this was a simpler mechanical lock, unlike the holographic ones the pirates favored).

The gate opened and Wallace pumped his fist in triumph, "once more unto the breach eh?"

John drove the 'warthog' through the gate, the tires bucked once and the hog stopped rolling. Samus looked over the side and was horrified to be looking into the dead eyes of a small girl, little older than she had been when the pirates had destroyed her home. John went around behind and pushed the hog over the pile of the dead. Wallace moved over to the inside gate lock and activated the security laser barrier. At that moment a metroid burst out of the pile of dead and lunged at the pirate. Wallace swore an oath and caught the metroid inches from his face. Both she and John had weapons aimed but could not fire for fear that they would hit a still living Wallace. With a grunt of exertion the pirate lifted the metroid away from his face and threw it to the ground. While the beast lay stunned Wallace drew back one boot and punted the little green devil into the laser barrier, where it disintegrated with a sputter and a pop.

She felt rather suspicious of the feat of strength; it took a good deal of power to stop a metroid rush cold like that, "Wallace… hold still."

The pirate stands and shoulders the brute shot in one fluid motion, "you don't need to bother scanning me lassie. I am 'corrupted' by phazon."

She looked over at John, ready to answer any question he might have, but John just slung his assault rifle, "I'm not even going to bother asking at this point."

She turns back to Wallace, "if that's true then why aren't you crazy?"

Wallace shrugs, "don't ask me lassie, I just found some glowin blue stuff on a derelict vessel, touched it, and woke up three days later stronger, faster, and immune to more of the stuff."

She lowered her weapon; her scan had revealed exactly what Wallace had said. He was, remarkably, a stable form of phazon corruption.

John wades through the pile of dead over to them, "questions will have to wait, we have a job to do. Samus since you have the most experience with the metroids you are going up, Wallace and I will go down. The beta radiation lab is higher up so when you get there wait for me and Wallace before you go in, sound good?"

She nodded and opened a private com channel with him, "keep in touch won't you?"

John replied over the same channel, "I will."

She turned away and began to walk in the direction of the ramp to the upper levels.

John watched Samus walk off with mixed feelings, his sense told him that she was going to be fine… but another part of him wanted to be there to make sure.

Wallace yelled to him from the lift down, "Chief! No time for being romantic, we got stuff to kill."

He mumbled to himself, "like always…"

As the lift descended John found himself wondering how his fellow Spartans were faring… they had all been assigned to guard command so… odds were they were bored out of their minds. He shook his head at the stupidity of it, Spartans were offensive warriors and they always had been. When the lift opened a metroid was waiting for Wallace and him, John stuck the barrel of his shotgun against the gelatinous mass and pulled the trigger. The metroid exploded with a wet sounding 'splat'. Drawn by the noise, several more came out of the vents; Wallace hit all of them at once with a grenade from the brute shot. More appeared; Wallace and he separated and spread out around the alley, both of them alternating between shooting the metroids and either cutting them in half or crushing them to pulp respectively. After he killed about fifty of them the flow of the creatures dropped off almost instantly, he turned his head and watched Wallace slash the last metroid in half with the blade of his brute shot.

John moved to the door of a building off to one side, "Wallace, cover the door."

After the pirate had aimed his weapon at the door John kicked it down and stormed in with his shotgun… there was a red spiky orb lying on the floor that he had almost trampled.

Samus was almost starting to get relaxed; there had been a very small amount of metroids on the floor when she had arrived but they had just gorged themselves on a small family and had been sluggish and more target practice than a threat.

Just as she was going to open a channel to check in with John he opened one with her, "Samus? You there?"

She let out a deep breath, "…yeah… I'm here. You alright?"

There was a brief hesitation, "… yes… look, I found this little red orb… should I be worried about it?"

Her blood froze instantly, "…that's a metroid egg… that means that there is a queen metroid somewhere in the city."

John finishes the thought, "probably in the beta radiation lab."

She hears a loud crack over the com… that couldn't seriously happen again could it?

John speaks again, "Samus… the egg just hatched… and the metroid is sitting on my shoulder…squeaking."

She fought hard not to laugh, "that's… heh… the infant has imprinted you as its mother…!"

She lost the battle and her laughter filled the com for a good sixty seconds.

John sounded surprisingly calm despite the circumstance, "…what do I do?"

She got her laughter under control, "you really don't have to do anything. It wouldn't hurt you if you were the last thing alive. Despite the appearance you've found a devoted little friend."

She closed the com line and opened a door, shooting a missile at the single metroid that was within, still laughing silently over the irony of circumstance.

John got off the line with Samus and looked down at the infant metroid that was sitting on his shoulder, happily chirping away.

When he walked out Wallace almost shot his 'pet' with a bullet from the sniper rifle. Wallace had missed because he was laughing so hard…

John did not let his irritation show, "enough laughing for now, we still have a job to do."

As he moved to kick down the next door the infant metroid detached from his shoulder and floated over to the next one down the line. Making a mental note of what door he had not checked he followed the infant and kicked down the door it had specified. Inside there were three metroids clustered over a still twitching corpse. John blew them all away with a frag grenade.

Relatively unsure he pet the infant metroid, "you're quite the bright little guy aren't you…"

The little creature chirped happily and floated to a door three places down on the opposite side of the street. He kicked this one down and there were four metroids closing in on a small child. All at once the metroids lunged at the child and the infant gave a short cry and died. He was suddenly angry, no, not angry… furious. His hand shot out and snatched Wallace's brute shot, eliciting a startled oath from the pirate, and slashed through all of the metroids in one swing. His metroid settled on the back of his hand and managed to sound worried despite only being able to chirp. John stood and shook his head… it wasn't like him to get angry like that…

He went outside and handed the weapon back to Wallace, "sorry about that…"

Wallace grimaced, "no need to apologize Chief, I was on the edge of doing that myself. We unfortunately cannot stop to mourn this senseless slaughter yet."

John turned to the next room and fed rounds into his shotgun, "you're right…"

Samus checked the map Serina had given her of the city. In two more floors she would have to stop and wait for John before entering the beta lab. However, the hatch in front of her was locked. She would normally be unimpeded by a locked door but… this was yet another mechanical lock. She would admit to herself that her manual hacking skills were relatively rusty; hence she was having a hard time getting it open.

She was about to open a com line with Wallace to ask for his help but John opened one with her, "Samus… why are you down here?"

Her body froze, "… I'm not… I'm standing outside of a locked hatch about seven floors up from you."

John's words invoked a waking nightmare, "I was wondering because I'm looking down the street and there is a mirror image of you kneeling in the middle of the street."

She ran to the edge of a scenic overlook, "don't do anything, I'll be right there."

She shut the channel and set one foot on the edge of the short railing, the safety screen had been deactivated so she should be able to get down much faster this way than by taking the lift. Something bumps into her back and sends her dangerously off balance. She turns; wind milling her arms for balance, there was a small metroid chittering insanely… she thought as the beast nudged her over the edge… who knew that metroids had a sense of humor?

John was watching the Samus duplicate with a small amount of confusion, the figure looked like an exact carbon copy of Samus but… there was some kind of aura he couldn't describe.

Wallace taps him on the shoulder, "hey Chief… it's raining."

He looks up at the pirate's bidding and sees possibly the oddest thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. Samus was falling through the air, perfectly still. He had seen people fall huge distances before; they always were flailing wildly like they thought they could fly… Samus was not. He quickly judged her angle of decent and took one step to the left… Samus dropped neatly into his arms.

He could feel Samus burning with embarrassment and could not help but push it, "nice of you to drop in."

Wallace was stifling hysterical laughter, "ok… now could the damsel tell us what's down there?"

Samus moves over to the railing, taking care not to alert the 'twin' down below.

An unmistakable note of hatred crept into Samus's voice, "that's Dark Samus… it's a long story… but the short version is that she was created when I lost a phazon augmented power suit to a monstrous metroid on a planet called Tallon IV. She's been haunting my footsteps since then, always trying to spread phazon throughout the galaxy."

Wallace gives Samus an odd look, "really? The one down there don't smell like phazon all that much."

He could feel the anger radiating from Samus, "shut it Wallace. We've fought more times and she's killed more people dear to me than I care to remember. She is evil, end of story."

Samus turns back to the figure below. Wallace gives both Samus and her 'evil twin' a thoughtful stare… and shoves Samus off the ledge.

He rushes forward but fails to catch Samus before she falls the relatively short distance onto Dark Samus, he turns to Wallace, "…what the hell was that for?"

Wallace chuckles, "you obviously have never seen a girl fight. I have seen many and I laugh so hard each time I feel almost like I would die."

John looks down to where the two Samus's had begun to shoot at each other, "…and how are we supposed to tell them apart now?"

Wallace shrugs, "no idea Chief, but that makes it a little more interesting doesn't it?"

He gives Wallace a restrained club to his back and begins to climb down to the same level of the battle.

Samus was angry, for more than one reason. Wallace had pushed her off of the edge and ONTO her adversary. Preventing her from getting the drop on… damn… she did get the drop on Dark Samus… just not in the traditional sense of the phrase. Now both her and her enemy's shield strength was almost empty. After another quick flurry of shots her missile count went dry. Apparently so to did Dark Samus's. She began to circle her enemy, like a tiger in a cage, and Dark Samus matched her step for step. Hoping to catch Dark Samus by surprise she raised her laser and pulled off a shot, but Dark Samus lunged forward and hit her in the midsection. They both fell to the ground with Dark Samus straddling her chest. With her pinned Dark Samus revealed her true nature, the pseudo-orange turned black and the electric blue visor burned in the center of Dark Samus's helmet. She made the slight observation that the glow really did seem weaker than last time… One of Dark Samus's feet pinned her arm cannon and the phazon powered arm cannon was inches from her face, slowly charging. There was a loud 'bang' and her rival's shot discharged into the floor inches from her head. She gathered her legs under her foe's chest and kicked Dark Samus off violently.

She looked to the side where John was holding a smoking sniper rifle, "how many times am I going to have to save your life?"

She got up and pointed to where Wallace was crouching over Dark Samus, "You wouldn't have had to if the idiot over there hadn't pushed me off the ledge."

She walks over and aims her arm cannon at Dark Samus's head. The clawed hand of her enemies suit was clutched over the huge hole that John's rifle round had left, deep red blood streaked with electric blue was slowly seeping out. Why was Dark Samus bleeding semi-human blood???

Wallace didn't seem to notice her standing behind him, "… let's see what's under this here helmet…"

Before she could stop him Wallace reached up and took Dark Samus's helmet off… it was like looking in a mirror… almost like it anyway. She saw her own face, her own hairstyle in black, the same eyes in a shade of electric blue… all of it looked… human.

Dark Samus looked up at her, face twisted in pain, breath coming in short gasps, "you see what I've become? I'm almost 100% you by now."

It struck her that she had never heard Dark Samus speak… as a matter of fact she had never spoken to Dark Samus either. The… thing… looking up at her spoke with a voice almost identical to her own, with the addition of a slight husky tone.

She charged her laser, "you'll never be me… but I am interested how you managed to survive the detonation of your constructed planet."

Dark Samus slid back against the wall, in a seated position, "I almost didn't… but my DNA was damaged beyond repair… now phazon is almost as toxic to me as it is to you…"

She speaks and takes careful aim, "impossible. You were just using it against me."

Dark Samus attempts to raise her own weapon, but fails, "you didn't notice how many more times I had to hit you to deplete your energy. I'm almost a normal human in regards to manipulating phazon… go ahead… shoot me, I really don't care anymore…"

A tear slipped down Dark Samus's face… that gave her pause. Her arm cannon lowered slightly… was Dark Samus telling the truth??? That her dark twin could no longer threaten the universe?

John sets a hand on her laser, "Samus… she's surrendering."

She held her laser level for a very long moment… and grudgingly lowered it.

Dark Samus chokes out a laugh, "idiot."

Her evil twin raises her fully charged weapon and takes aim at her, at this distance there would be no missing. Wallace grabs the barrel of Dark Samus's beam and aims it at himself, taking the full brunt of the blast in his face. The beam dissipates and Wallace was fine… albeit the fact that his hat was disintegrated.

Wallace feels around the top of his head, "… damn it… me hat's gone."

Dark Samus looks up at Wallace in astonishment for a few seconds and faints dead away.

Wallace props up Dark Samus's head, "well… guess she was stunned by my own form of 'corruption'. Wonder what she'll say when she wakes up…"

John gestures back in the direction of the warthog, "I guess you can take our… 'prisoner' back to the hog and patch her up… Samus and I will head up and kill this 'queen metroid'. Sound ok to you Samus?"

She glares after Wallace, who had slung Dark Samus's unconscious body effortlessly over his shoulder and was toting her dark copy like some kind of trophy, "all of it except the part where Wallace 'patches her up'."

John gave her a quizzical look, as did his pet metroid (however it managed that), "you really do hate her don't you?"

She hesitated for the slightest of moments, "of course I do!"

John merely looked at her and turned to the lift. She silently cursed and followed him, trying to sort out the mess of thoughts tumbling through her head.

John was perplexed by Samus's reaction to her 'evil twin'. Of course… he didn't have a clone running around and trying to kill him at every turn. If he turned the issue on its side he could look at it like his grudging friendship with the Arbiter. Once both of them had hated each other but they had saved each other's lives too many times to count. Maybe something similar would eventually happen with this 'Dark Samus'.

John punched in the floor count for the beta lab into the lift console, "so… Samus… you have killed one of these queen metroids before right?"

Samus gives him a nod, "of course, I shot over one hundred of my missiles into its open mouth."

He recalled her recent duel, "…and how many missiles do you have on you?"

Samus appears to realize what he was thinking, "…zero…"

He shrugs it off, "we'll think of something."

He rode the lift up in silence to the beta radiation lab. The very moment the hatch slid open his 'pet' practically doubled in size and took on a green shade as opposed to the light blue it had been before.

The metroid settles onto his shoulder again, he turns to Samus, "you weren't kidding about how fast they evolve."

Samus doesn't even look at him, "no… I wasn't……… I see the queen."

John follows her gaze to the radiation emitter. What he assumed to be the queen metroid had a long serpentine neck and a large scaly body, all of it colored a deep blue. The creature had grown under the emitter and gotten stuck, the beast almost filled the lab with its bulk.

John shut the hatch almost as quickly as he had opened it, "I think we need a new plan, because that thing isn't going anywhere and neither of us have the ordnance to kill it."

Samus looks thoughtful for a moment, "…we could detonate the radiation emitter… but that would destroy the entire city…"

He opens a com line to command, "It's the only option we have. Command? This is Spartan 117 requesting permission to detonate the city's reactor."

The com comes through filled with static, but still understandable, "Spartan 117, repeat request one more time please…"

He remains calm despite being put on hold, "… requesting permission to destroy city and sterilize the infestation, sir."

The person on the other end hesitates, "… Sierra 117 is there any other way to clear the city that does not involve detonation?"

He gives a curt, blunt, "none."

Command responds, "…ok Sierra 117… you have permission to sterilize the city, over and out."

He turns and nods to Samus. He cups his hands and practically throws her up to the control console at the top of the reactor. The queen metroid apparently takes exception to this and uncoils its bulk in an attempt to stop Samus. He unclips his last frag grenade and hurls it into the monsters open mouth. The beast freezes in its tracks, giving Samus enough time to hack the console and set the reactor to detonate. Both he and Samus do a flying leap out of the glass windows, falling the considerable distance to the courtyard where he had parked the warthog. What greeted his eyes was Wallace leaning against the side of the hog with Dark Samus calmly lying down, receiving medical attention. Wallace looked startled by Samus's and his loud landing but quickly finished his rudimentary medical work and climbed up into the back of the hog on the left side, Dark Samus took up a position on the right. Samus climbed into the passenger seat and he took the wheel. He put the pedal to the floor and the hog plowed through the pile of the dead and out onto the plain. The tension reigned supreme, squashing all conversation, until the blast radius faded into the distance. He found himself starting to chuckle… then outright laughter.

Samus looked at him, "what are you laughing at?"

He slowed the hog as the city exploded far in the background, "both of us… have a habit of causing catastrophic explosions to highlight the end of a mission."

Dark Samus spoke up from the back, "no… really? I hadn't noticed with the three times your girlfriend has blown up an entire planet under my feet."

He looked back at Dark Samus, the copy had replaced her helmet and the t-shaped visor was glaring at both him and Samus, glowing faintly.

Samus cast a glare of her own back at her twin, "as I recall, you were the actual explosion in two of those cases, and you detonated yourself several times in an attempt to kill me. Every time you failed."

He saw Dark Samus start tapping at her own laser in aggravation. Hopefully the copy had more sense than to start a laser duel while he was driving.

Serina spoke up in his head, "quite the little crew you have here Chief, an intergalactic mercenary, a little pet monster, and two radioactively mutated… beings."

He replied icily, "Serina… I told you to observe and stay quiet. Why are you ignoring me?"

A sarcastic reply, "the mission is over isn't it? You got rid of all the metroids except your 'pet' and sterilized the city. Not to mention the fact that you took prisoner a highly dangerous individual that Samus says is the leader of the Space Pirate forces."

He rather doubted that the… 'woman' in the back was even close to being powerful enough to lead those Space Pirates. Especially considering how powerful the Ridly thing was that he and Samus had killed a short while ago. He had this odd feeling that there was more to this infestation than there appeared.

Phase 3: Lighting the Fuse

Samus watched Wallace leading Dark Samus off to the medical bay, everything that she thought rebelled against the idea of giving her copy any aid whatsoever. But the decision hadn't been her's to make. Wallace had created a highly sensible, yet highly bizarre plan as for how to deal with a radioactive prisoner. The pirate had stated that seeing as only he was immune to phazon radiation he would be Dark Samus's escort/warden for as long as they kept the dark one prisoner. She followed at a reasonable distance, preparing the lie that 'she was going to visit Adolf von Krieger'. Which was an indisputable claim; she actually did have a friend in the German master sergeant that had patched her up twice so far. She followed the pair and eavesdropped, Wallace was asking questions, joking… was he FLIRTING with DARK SAMUS?!?!?!? Had Wallace lost his mind?!?!? She watched the doctor on call (which was not Adolf) bring Dark Samus around behind a screen for privacy… there was a sound that vaguely resembled melting and a weak blue flash. The doctor stumbled out from behind the curtain and vomited into a bucket. That was the extent of radiation Dark Samus put off when leaving her suit? Only enough to cause nausea in a regular human? Her clone's claim that she had been severely crippled was looking more plausible by the moment. Wallace was sitting in a chair by the door, idly perusing a magazine.

She walked over to Wallace, "have you lost what little sanity you had?"

Wallace didn't even look up, "nope, just playin the field lassie. Besides, why do you care?"

She paused for a second, "because that… thing is an inhuman monster that has caused more damage to more lives than all the Space Pirates combined."

Wallace actually looks up this time, "… looks close enough to human to me, and if I don't I'm sure someone else on this ship will."

She cannot believe what she is hearing, "you have got to be kidding me…"

Wallace closes his magazine and puts his boots up on another chair, "If you haven't noticed by now, you are a very attractive woman. And, by blessing of identical DNA, so is she. That little 'stunt' you pulled on the bridge a while ago only cemented your popularity with the men. I have personally seen a poster of you in… considerably less clothing, photo shopped of course but still… they are out there. Now that a virile young doctor has seen your twin in detail it's only a matter of time before both of you will be the talk of the ship." Wallace's mouth twists into a sneer, "as a matter of fact… I'm sure that some perverted mind will have you and her together in less… shall we say 'hostile' situations."

She was about to start yelling at Wallace when a calm, thickly accented German voice interrupts her, "excuse me but… there is a problem." She turns and Adolf von Krieger was standing in a white doctor's uniform, "we are having some… issues trying to treat her."

Wallace slings his boots down, "really? What you doin wrong this time?"

Adolf gives Wallace an amused look, "_we_ haven't been able to do anything. It is a problem with the patient. None of my doctors are able to touch her skin without being burned."

She and Wallace said at the same time, "radiation…"

Adolf nods, "exactly, and I noticed Herr Wallace here physically touching the patient as he led her in so…"

Wallace chuckles, "you need me to do the stitching… ok, I'll save her life."

Adolf led Wallace behind the curtain, exchanging some banter that she didn't quite understand. She hears the door to the rest of the ship open and John stoops through under the low mantle.

John looks up and sees her, "…eagerly awaiting the moment your twin goes insane?"

She nods, "and you?"

John looks over at the partition, where there was an audible, female hiss of pain, "Captain Cutter would like me to question the prisoner."

She nodded again and sat down next to John, part of her was still boggled by what Wallace had told her about the marines on the ship, the rest of her was happy just sitting next to John in a rare moment of peace.

John had gotten a textbook reprimand for destroying the city but it was nothing that would mar his reputation. Command had only been observing protocol by saying that they expected more of him, but what did they want him to do? After he showed them the footage of him throwing a grenade down the queen metroid's throat and it only being stunned… the talk was over rather quickly. As for his 'pet'… the metroid was currently floating around his quarters, when a scientist had attempted to stun the creature for isolation his metroid had tackled the scientist and latched onto the lab rat's face. The only way it had gotten off was that he had told it to release the scientist. When the metroid had released… the scientist was ashen faced and barely alive, even so, command had let him keep the metroid despite the obvious danger. Judging that the creature had only reacted to a perceived threat. Upon returning to the Sprit of Fire, he had been confronted by Captain Cutter and asked respectfully to interrogate Dark Samus. Now he was sitting in the medical bay waiting for the doctors to finish patching the hole he had put in Dark Samus's midsection. Unlike the time he had impaled Samus, he did not feel the slightest bit guilty about wounding the dark twin. He reasoned that Dark Samus had been threatening Samus's well being and he had what he had done was well within his rights.

Adolf poked his head out from behind the screen, "you are free to interrogate the subject." The German looks at Samus, "I will be standing by if violence erupts."

He stands and pushes aside the curtain. Wallace was dropping a needle into a biohazard bag and Dark Samus was waiting, sitting, on the table. The armor around her midsection was slowly reforming as he watched, almost seeming to flow like water. Possibly due to the lack of need to emulate Samus the copy's flesh now had just the slightest hint of blue.

Dark Samus removed her helmet and shot Samus a glare, "what? Am I still so threatening that three of you need to be here? I'm flattered."

He remained calm, "Samus wanted to be here, Wallace is immune to… whatever it is that you shoot, and I'm the one with the questions."

Dark Samus leaned back against the wall, "you don't even have to ask, the Space Pirates aren't responsible for the infestation."

Samus scoffs, "if not them, then who?"

Dark Samus's mouth twists into a smirk, "you have no imagination you know that? The Galactic Federation found me after the destruction of Phaze and sent me, along with the metroids, in a pod down into your city."

Samus stuck her laser in Dark Samus's face, "you're lying!"

Dark Samus only crossed her arms, "if you don't believe me, then just go and ask them. You should still be in their good graces."

Samus's laser was visibly shaking with anger.

He put his hand on the weapon and gently, yet forcefully, lowered it, "now is not the time for this."

Samus glared at her copy for a long moment before storming out.

The smirk had still not left Dark Samus's face, "we share quite a temper don't we?"

He stood for a moment… and followed Samus.

Samus stood in the hallway, whole body quivering with anger. The GF would never seriously launch an offensive against another human population… would they? As much as she hated to admit it Dark Samus had planted a seed of doubt in her head. She heard heavy footsteps behind her.

John crossed the intervening distance between them, "something wrong?" When she didn't answer, "…she's probably telling the truth you know."

She looked up at him, "you actually believe her?"

John nodded, "certain things about her leading the Space Pirates in her current state don't fit with me, especially how the Pirates seem to only respect brute force. Dark Samus no longer has that level of power."

She looked off into nothing for a long time. John believed her dark copy… and when he said it that way it even made sense. If the Space Pirates had found Dark Samus in this current state they would have dissected her and tried to either repower the entity or make more of her. The GF was more than capable of sending a captive off to die in a combat zone as collateral damage. The GF had probably figured that the UNSC would just destroy the city from orbit, not send in a team of three people that would find the truth…

She sounded lost, even to herself, "maybe… I should take Dark Samus's advice just this once…"

John spoke from behind her, "if you plan on going to a possibly hostile planet then I'm going with you."

She looked back at him in surprise, "you would do that? But… the military…"

John shrugged, "I have over five years of shore leave stored up, a few days of it will not make a difference."

She felt glad that John would be going with her but… at the same time she was uneasy. His point of view had awoken a nameless fear within her heart. The Federation marines may be incompetent but there were a lot of them, some even had a P.E.D. device attached with a tank of phazon to fuel it. Those shots hurt shields almost as much as Dark Samus had in her heyday.

There was substantial gratitude in her voice, "thank you… I'll be waiting on my ship."

John nods to her and turns on a dime to clear it with Captain Cutter. She hurried to her ship; some impulse drove her to make sure everything was in order.

She woke the onboard computer from standby, "get up Adam. We have places to go."

The ship managed to sound groggy, "about time you woke me, I've been waiting for who knows how long…"

She cut off the computer, "enough chatter, has anyone come onboard?"

The ship replied lazily, "apart from a floating, purple eyeball that hacked your ship files in half a second this place has almost been a graveyard."

The computer's personality seemed… off, "and apparently it hacked everything else to."

The computer acts as if in a daze, "no… that was the other visitor… he hacked all your mission logs… he took particular notice of the ones after Tallon IV.

She hissed under her breath, "Wallace… when I get back…"

She was interrupted by a knock at the hatch. When she looked out there was a familiar polarized visor looking in at her… with an equally familiar purple eye floating behind his shoulder. She opens the hatch and lets John in, his metroid however bowled her over before she could shut the hatch on 1114 Resplendent Valor. Once she regained her feet, she looked over at John, who had to stoop over in the majority of her ship. He was relatively unarmed, only a large pistol on his hip. However, considering the two things that he had brought with him there really was no need of anything else.

She closed the hatch, "sorry about the lack of vertical space, I've never really entertained anyone here."

John stood straight in the one place he could, directly behind the pilot's chair, "I'll be fine, it's better than a cryo pod."

She took her place in the seat, "Either way you won't have to worry about it long, Galactic Federation HQ isn't that far away considering where we met."

John leans awkwardly against the bulkhead, "how long should it take?"

She punches in the co-ordinates, "two days at most…" She notices Valor drifting towards the data jack, "don't even think about it lightbulb."

Valor gives a slight huff and floats up into a notch in the hull, where the orb wedges itself in. She finishes plotting the course, gets up, and walks over to where John was idly watching his metroid float around the cabin.

She unconsciously leaned on him and watched the metroid, "you should name it something."

John looked down at her, "you are kidding me right? I didn't even have a pet _before_ I was conscripted."

She took her helmet off and set it aside, "did you know any other kids with pets?"

John chuckles, "well I don't think 'Fluffy' would be a good name for a green, life-leeching parasite that is incredibly difficult to kill…"

She noticed how he trailed off, "you had an idea?"

She can practically feel John smirking, "… an old friend of mine… he died early in the war……… Sam…"

She watched 'Sam' bumping into Valor out of curiosity. The monitor would give an annoyed huff and flit to the other end of the cabin. Sam followed without fail. The thought came to her that she was finally, completely alone with John… the only thing present that would recall anything and be able to verbalize it was Valor, and the metroid was keeping her quite busy. She felt her hand slowly moving towards the release on her chest… she heard a small hissing noise, smelled something acrid, and blacked out.

John felt Samus slump against him. He looked down in alarm before realizing that she had simply fallen asleep… wait… was she that tired? His hand moved for the pressure seal on his helmet.

Valor spoke up, "I wouldn't do that if I were you Reclaimer. The hold is filled with a non-lethal, nerve gas. The female has already inhaled enough to keep her unconscious for two days."

He glances down at Samus's surprisingly peaceful face before asking, "…and why is the cabin filled with knockout gas?"

The ship's computer answers him, "my owner's hormones were on the rise."

The meaning was lost on him, "pardon?"

Valor flees again from Sam, "I believe what the construct is trying to convey, is that the female reclaimer was contemplating intercourse."

It dawns upon him what they meant, "…oh…"

He picks Samus's sleeping form up and carries her into the small sleeping chamber. He lay her upon the spare bed and turned to leave… paused… and covered her with the blanket. It was a futile gesture and he knew it but… she deserved it. He moved out into the cabin and sat in the pilot's chair.

The ship's computer brought up a screen in front of him, "I trust you won't do anything to compromise the Lady's person?"

He was momentarily startled by the computer directly addressing him, "…of course not."

The computer sounds satisfied, "good… I would like to personally welcome you aboard then, I'm Adam."

He returned the greeting, "John 117, good to be aboard."

The computer started being more polite, "the jump will take place in an hour, would you like to sleep?"

He turns to watch Sam annoy Valor, "no… not yet."

Adam seems to understand, "very well… and I apologize for interfering, next time I will remain out of it."

He looked over at the screen but did not respond. Sam settled onto his knee, chirping softly. He scratched the little metroid and thought that the Sam he had known would appreciate that his memory was being kept alive.

Phase 4: Detonation

Samus awoke in her bed, had she actually…? No, she was still wearing her armor. What had… Adam!!!

She put her helmet on, "Adam?"

The ship responds, "yes Lady?"

Anger tinges her voice, "what did you do?"

Adam replies matter-of-factly, "I used the sedatives to render you unconscious."

She stands, "and why did you do that?"

Adam opens the door for her, "I wanted to gauge his character for myself, see if he really was as noble as you said he was."

She looked over to where John was asleep in the pilot's chair, "and your conclusion?"

The computer opens the forward viewport, revealing the GF home world and the space station where they were heading, "I am glad to say that he his made of honor."

She puts a hand on John's shoulder and gently shakes him, "I could have told you that."

Adam makes a snide remark, "well, by the way your pulse starts racing whenever you're in close contact with him made me wonder. Along with what you were thinking just before I put you under."

Her face burned beneath her visor and John rose from the seat. She took John's place and received a transmission from the station.

There was a GF marine on the other end, "bounty hunter Samus Aran… we've been expecting you. Hanger 10 is open for you."

The GF marine sent Adam the coordinates and her ship's computer guided itself into the open hanger.

John was talking to his metroid, which was attempting to follow him out into the hanger, "Sam, stay!"

The metroid gave a defeated chirp and settled into the pilot's chair despite objections from Adam.

John gave one last order to Valor, "if anyone but us comes aboard, fry them."

Valor gave something that resembled a nod, "of course Reclaimer."

She opened the hatch and stepped out into the hanger, there were a few friendly waves from the GF marines and workers throughout. When John stepped out… everything froze. One GF marine froze mid-wave and turned to a fellow soldier in something like panic. She told herself, 'it's ok… they've just never seen a Spartan before…'

One of the GF marines detaches himself from his squad and walks over to her and John, "Samus, the commander would like to speak with you in private if that's alright."

She nods and begins to follow the GF marine.

Another GF marine walks over to John, "excuse me sir, I'll take you to where you can wait.

She watched as the GF marine led John in the direction opposite to her own. Her guide led her through several security checkpoints and laser barriers before arriving at the bridge, an aged but still commanding figure was waiting for her. The same GF marine that had escorted her whispered something in the officer's ear.

The officer stood, "it's a pleasure to finally meet you Samus… you do know that the man you brought here is the hero of the UNSC?"

The question caught her off guard, "ah, of course I know."

The officer rubbed his chin, "that's what I was afraid of…"

The man presses a button on his wrist and her suit locks up.

Several GF marines surround her and the officer points an energy pistol at her head, "sorry about this Samus, but under wartime article 54-G you are under arrest for knowingly transporting an enemy combatant to a Federation world."

Stunned, she asks the first question that came to mind, "How… how did you freeze my suit?"

A smirk crosses the officer's face, "you have yourself to thank for that Samus, what with all the generous contributions you've made to science team over the years they finally found the way to hack your suit. We have yet to mass produce the weapons and equipment but, I like this outcome far more. You will actually live to see what your misplaced trust has done to the universe. Once the Federation finishes the UNSC we will turn our attention to those accursed Space Pirates, the entire galaxy will be ours, and we will have you to thank for it."

Her stomach churned at the thought that she had enabled this treachery, "why though? What has the UNSC done to make you target them?"

The officer shrugged, "simple, they are the only other human government in the known galaxy, and the only military force that could defeat our own. On the subject of the UNSC…" He turns to a GF marine next to him, "tell your men to execute the Spartan."

Her heart skipped a beat, no… John.

John had been waiting in the small chamber for a long time. He spent the time mentally going over the close combat techniques his CO had taught him as a small boy. He felt the GF marine tense up suddenly… reflex had his M6D pistol out of the holster and aimed, dead center, at the GF marine's blue faceplate.

The trooper's weapon lowered slightly, "you're kidding me right? This is Galactic Federation battle armor, that ballistic pistol won't even scratch the paint."

John pulled the trigger once, causing the trooper's head to explode inside of his helmet, "… the armor might be superior, but the face is just glass."

He assumed that since the GF marine had just tried to kill him that Samus was either in trouble or already fighting. Either way, he was going to need more firepower. He bulled his way though the two hatches between him and the hanger.

He tapped on the hatch to Samus's ship, "Adam, open up!"

The hatch opened and he ran inside. He moved aside a seat cushion and picked up a BR55 rifle.

Adam spoke, "how did you get that onboard without me noticing???"

He replied while beckoning Sam, "I didn't, Valor did. I never have been good at diplomacy."

Adam comments before he closes the door, "I doubt it would have mattered this time anyway…"

He switched the battle rifle over to single fire, without knowing how many troopers were between him and Samus it was best to be as frugal as possible. He broke down the door that Samus had gone through… three GF troopers died from shots between the eyes. At what appeared to be a security checkpoint there was a squad of five troopers waiting for him. One rushed at him with a bayonet while the others dug in around furniture and took blind shots around the corners at him. He held his ground against the charging trooper and punched the fool in the face. The trooper had been a bit far away for a killing blow but the punch still put the fool out of commission. He carefully placed his shots in the faces of the remaining four GF marines. As he began to move on the trooper he had punched began to stir.

The trooper looked up at him… it was a girl, "please… don't… don't kill me…"

He paused for half a second… and began to walk onward. He heard the sound of static and turned back, a hologram was projecting from just below the girl's cracked face plate.

There was an older man on the other end that might have been worthy of respect, if he weren't screaming at a hurt girl, "you do realize, trooper, that by surrendering you have just committed high treason?!? I order you to shoot the Spartan!!!"

He could hear the girl choke back tears, clearly she had been drafted, "but… this is all wrong! These are people you're talking about killing!"

The hologram grew even more agitated, "I will say it one more time, trooper. Fire upon the Spartan!!!!!"

The girl gets up to her knees, "no…"

The man in the hologram goes berserk, "FINE! Broadcast to all marines that unit 617759 is guilty of treason and must be shot on sight!!!"

The girl begins to cry. Sam, who had been following at a distance, floated to just in front of her.

He remembered the scientist, "Sam…"

Contrary to what he thought Sam was about to do the metroid playfully bumped into the trooper's chest, eliciting a startled gasp from the girl.

He shook his head and walked back to the young woman, "seeing as you don't want to fight me, could I convince you to help?"

The girl looks up at him like a grunt caught in the headlights of a warthog, "I… I guess…"

He helps the woman up, "what do I call you?"

The girl has to crane her neck back to look at his visor, "ah… you can call me Toa."

He nods and turns back the way he was going, "fair enough… and keep your head down."

Samus was getting more amused by the moment as John fought his way through the GF troopers and even managed to recruit one along the way. Sam was not only causing panic but was growing at an impressive rate, sooner or later the little metroid would start to evolve. Even at the alpha phase Sam would crash through the troopers like wind in a wheat field.

The officer was screaming in hysterics, "I want more men up here NOW!!! And bring up the clone from the science lab. I don't care if it isn't fully upgraded yet!"

The officer's last words gave her pause, "clone? You've cloned me to?"

The man looked over at her and went from hysterical to mocking in an instant, "yes we have! Via the same method as the suit hack!"

She smiled and attempted to shake her head, "idiot… John's already beaten me. What makes you think a half-upgraded clone will be able to do what I couldn't?"

The officer screams at her, "SHUT UP!!!"

She looks over the officer's shoulder at the screen he had been watching, "Either way… I don't think you're clone will get here in time."

True enough, the moment she finished speaking John burst though the bridge hatch and shot the officer in the head. With the death of the controller her suit was freed and she quickly shot down all the troopers that had surrounded her.

The trooper that John had recruited walked cautiously over to her, to her surprise the trooper was a young girl, "Uh… Miss Aran?"

She nodded, "yes, and you're Toa?"

Toa looked at her with awe, "How did you know?"

She smirked, "You left your com line on, everyone up here heard everything."

What was visible of Toa's face burned brilliant red. There was a hissing sound and a hatch behind Toa opened, revealing an identical armor suit to her own.

John almost laughed, "You've got to be kidding me, another clone?"

She sighs, "Apparently the GF plans to use clones of me to conquer the galaxy."

John pulls Toa out of the path of a missile, "Not while I'm around, Sam! Get her!"

The metroid flies at the clone and latches on, the clone begins to fire wildly, John yelled, "Hit the deck!"

She does the sensible thing and does exactly what John suggested. A wild shot from the clone shoots into one of the control consoles.

The ever ominous alarm klaxons start blaring, "propulsion system offline, planetary impact imminent. Evacuate immediately."

She laughed to herself, "why does this always happen?"

John sprang to his feet and hauled Toa up after him while Sam finished off the clone, "now is not the time to be laughing, we need to get out of here."

Adam's voice comes in over the com, "I agree with John here, the propulsion system isn't the only thing going wrong because of the damage your clone wrought. The fuel systems have gone haywire; explosions are occurring randomly all over the station."

John heard the message, "all the more reason to get moving."

John kicks down the door and she was the first to charge out, John behind her, Toa behind him, and Sam flitted along at the end of their odd group. In the hanger the moment she set foot inside of her ship a massive shockwave threw her forward. She quickly regained her feet and turned to see John lying at least 100 yards away across a gaping chasm in the hanger floor. Time seemed to slow as John lifted his head and made eye contact with her. She began to step back towards John…

John's voice came over the com, "Adam… close the hatch."

Her eyes widened as the hatch shut in front of her. With desperation fueling her she pounded on the hatch futilely. The ship's thrusters fired up and her ship blasted out of the hanger, away from John.

She tore her helmet off so Adam could see her face, "Adam!!! Turn the ship around!!! I'm not leaving him behind!!!"

Adam did not respond.

She spun around back to the porthole; she thought she saw John waving goodbye… the station hit the planet with enough force to shake her ship.

She gave the hatch one last futile smack, her voice came out cracked and weak, "…no…NOOOO!!!!!!"

She slid down the hatch, crying for the first time in years, a small voice in her head said, 'you knew that this would happen, that's why we promised ourselves that we would never let ourselves fall in love again.' Out the window the growing fireball continued to expand, covering most of the continent in waves of destruction.

She tried to stand… and failed, "Adam… please… turn the ship around."

The computer's voice was grave, "I'm sorry Lady… John's last order was that I see you to safety, and the surface of Galactic Federation HQ is most definitely NOT where he would have wanted me to take you."

Her grief stricken body would not move, she could just kneel there and cry. Perhaps out of pity or out of kindness Valor levitated her onto her bed, onto which she collapsed.

Phase 5:

Part 1: The Behind Enemy Lines

John saw the hatch close on Samus. He felt her pain from over 100 yards away… but this was for the best.

He heard Toa yelling at him, "Sir!!! Over here!!!"

He turned around and Toa was standing in a deep grey crate… did she seriously think that a box would save their lives? Well… it couldn't hurt to try. He runs over and climbs in. He calls Sam over and Toa seals the crate.

He turns on his flashlight inside the cramped compartment, "so… is this really going to save our lives?"

Toa nods excitedly, "yes sir, this is a secure GF crate. Nothing short of a star blowing up could break one of these open."

He felt strangely melancholy, "well that's good… seeing as we are as close to a star detonation as we can get."

The metal starts to vibrate around them. Sam latches onto the side of the compartment, he and Toa quickly follow suit by bracing arms and legs against the sides. The vibration is followed by a massive roar as the heat builds to dangerous levels. He could feel the hot air burning its way into his lungs, only imagining how much the girl next to him must be suffering without a protective vacuum seal. During this detonation Sam starts to grow a hard, shiny shell over its back, limbs grow out of the claw mandibles and the gelatin turns a sickly shade of yellow. Sam's new claws dig into the metal.

He comments, "… at least we'll be able to get out of here…"

There was a feeling of weightlessness, either they were flying through the air or had been ejected into space. The former proved true when there was another jarring impact and the cube started rolling. Luckily, the crate ends up the same way it had started, with both him and Toa sitting straight up.

He looked over at Toa, "think you can undo the lock?"

The trooper starts to fumble with the locking mechanism… after about five minuets of trying she gave up.

Toa slumps down in defeat, "I'm sorry…"

He lightly sets his hand on her shoulder, "don't be." He then turns his head to Sam, "get us out of here."

The metroid squeezes its claws together and cuts through the metal like a knife through butter. The entire time the hole grew Toa's eyes grew with every inch of progress Sam made. When Sam was done and out he deactivated his shields and squeezed out. After making a quick sweep of the area he pulled Toa out.

Toa looked up at him, "what do we do now sir?"

He looked around at where they had landed; the station's crash had created a huge crater in the middle of the continent. They were near the edge of the bowl and it would only be a short climb to the top.

He slung his battle rifle, "our best bet is to get out of this hole, anything could see us at any time and I really don't want to fight the entire Federation at once."

By shoving his feet into the glassed sides of the crater he was able to ascend quickly and at the same time create footholds for his charge. He reached the top and swept his eyes around… nothing. He turned back to the pit and extended a hand to help Toa up. Just as he did this there was a crash from below and two Samus clones burst out of a mostly intact laboratory-like structure.

He slung Toa up, "go hide."

The girl wordlessly did as she was told. In the pit, the clones had seen each other, after a brief moment where he hoped they would shoot each other they turned as one to his position on top of the ridge. He sent Sam to attack one and the metroid successfully latched onto the face of the clone by stabbing two claws through the sides of the helmet. That left one fully armed Samus clone coming up the ridge at him. He slung his rifle and plunged down the slope, knowing that bullets were not very effective against any Federation armor. Using random pieces of wreckage as cover he closed the distance with the clone, finally springing over a destroyed bulkhead to kick the clone, hard, in the body. There was a familiar cry of pain that froze him for the slightest of moments. This moment was all that the clone needed to get back up and start shooting. His shields were flattened in short order and he dove behind the same bulkhead as before.

Toa yelled from the top of the ridge, "Sir! There are Federation troopers closing in!"

The clone shifts its aim from him to Toa high on the ridge. Toa had enough sense to duck down behind the brim. He took his chance and grabbed the clone by the helmet. He savagely twisted the clone's head until there was an audible 'crack'. Sam, now as big around as a brute chieftain, floated over to him and gave him a nudge in the direction of the ridge. When he got to the top of the ridge there was a small troop of GF marines keeping Toa pinned behind a convenient rock from behind which she took what few shots she could. He used his pistol to pick off four of them, the last one turned to run while holding his hand to the side of his helmet. Obviously, the trooper was radioing in that he was alive and still kicking. Sam shrieked and tackled the trooper from behind.

Toa crept slowly out from behind cover, "now what sir?"

He took a moment to respond, "… now we go where the trooper was heading."

Toa's eyes widen with fear, "but… wouldn't that be where there were more troopers?"

He ejected the spent clip in his pistol and slammed a fresh one home, "…exactly."

Part 1a: Desperation

Samus slowly awoke from slumber. Adam had once again used the sedatives to put her to sleep but she didn't care. She was still too worked up over John's death, even when doomed all he had cared about was that she would be safe. How could she move on after that??? She heard the hatch open and made no effort to hide her tears. A tall, muscular alien was standing in the hatch; it had four mandibles and wore armor that looked more ceremonial than anything else. It took a step forward and she noticed that its feet were hooves; also it had only three fingers.

The alien turned to look outside of her ship and spoke in a deep, almost majestic tone, "the female is inside… the Spartan is not."

Wallace shouldered his way past the alien, "Samus… what happened?"

She choked on the words, "John… he's… dead…"

Wallace and the alien scoffed at the same time but Wallace was the one to speak, "I'll believe that when I see his corpse."

The alien gives her a look, "The Spartan has survived more than I would think possible. I to, do not believe in his demise."

Then there was hope… slim as it may be.

She turned back to the pilot's chair, "I have to go back."

Wallace catches her by the shoulder, "now hold on there lassie, no sense in running off to fight a losing battle. Give us a few hours and we could probably send a whole fleet to help."

The light of hope deep within her soul burned brighter, "what do you mean?"

Wallace, with a flourish, bends at the waist and gestures at the alien, "may I be the first to introduce you to the Arbiter. Commander of the Elite forces."

The Arbiter beckons her, "come, we have no time to waste."

She followed the 'Elite' to a small chamber on the Spirit of Fire. Captain Cutter was gathered around a holographic projector along with another Elite in all-white armor and Lord Hood, whom she had seen several days ago on a video screen.

Cutter was the first to notice her, "Samus? Where is the Chief?"

She walked over to the projector, "…I have to believe that he is alive, on the surface of the Galactic Federation homeworld."

Wallace came up beside her, "I think it would be about time the UNSC saves the Chief for once don't you think?"

Lord Hood shook his head, "if only we could…"

A dangerous note crept into her voice, "what? Why?"

Lord Hood looked like a tired man, "we barely have the ships to protect Earth. We can't even go on the offensive without the Elites here."

Wallace leaned into the hologram, which gave his face an insane look, "than don't, you have the ships to defend right? The Elites can go and save the Chief and you can stay here and protect Earth."

Cutter broke in, "it would be a terrible loss to moral if we lost the Chief, Lord Hood. I personally volunteer my ship to go alongside the Elites."

Lord Hood nods, "my apologies, I haven't been thinking clearly lately. Captain Cutter, Arbiter… I pray you can bring the Chief back in one piece."

The white armored Elite speaks, "knowing the Spartan we'll be lucky if there is anything left to fight."

Lord Hood left the room. She left as well, leaving those skilled in large-scale battles to do their planning in peace. Wallace strangely remained within, perhaps to add his spark of insanity to the plans. She exited the chamber and turned to try and catch some real sleep before departure… Dark Samus was leaning on the wall just outside the door, helmet off, ignoring the approving leers of the men that randomly walked by. She locked eyes with her twin for a long moment… and turned the other way.

Dark Samus's voice carried to her ears, "…I'm sorry about the Spartan…"

She turned back to her twin, "what do you know about 'sorry'?!?"

Dark Samus retained her sneer… but it faltered for a moment, "…let's just say I've come to learn what I've been missing out on by trying to take over the universe."

She felt a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth, "it's about time. Maybe now I won't have to roam around the galaxy, killing you over and over."

Dark Samus's face twisted into a smirk of her own, "don't make it sound like you didn't enjoy it. I did."

Her mask cracks and the smirk shines forth, "of course you did. You wouldn't have come back so many times if you hadn't."

Dark Samus hesitantly extends a hand.

Instinct leads her to hesitate, "what's this?"

Dark Samus's sneer returns, "it's a handshake you idiot. I'm offering to end our rivalry."

She hesitated only briefly after that, "you know that by calling me an idiot you're calling yourself one to?"

Dark Samus shook her hand, "then hears to two idiots."

A voice comes from behind them, "glad to see you two finally gettin along. Now I won't have to worry about any spontaneous laser fire scorchin me new hat."

Wallace was standing slightly in front of the two Elites. Captain Cutter's back could be seen as the older man made quick progress back to his ship's bridge.

She turned away from Dark Samus and for the first time did not expect a missile in her back, "are all the plans ready?"

The Arbiter nods, "indeed, we only need the coordinates."

She knew that by handing over the information she was turning her back on the Galactic Federation forever, but considering what the GF was capable of… she didn't mind at all. Within the hour she would be leading a fleet of warships against the only home she had ever had, her only though, 'this time I'm saving _you_ John'.

Part 2: The Belly of the Beast

John used his rifle's scope to quickly look over the GF compound that Sam's last victim had tried to flee to. It was a relatively small structure compared to some UNSC bases he had seen, but it was still a huge, forbidding structure. He watched the patrols idly whiling away the hours. He almost found himself laughing at the laxness of the security, these GF troopers were worse than grunts… well… maybe as bad. At least not all of them were sleeping, or playing cards.

He turned back to Toa, who was panting heavily from keeping up with him, "you up for this?"

The girl gave him a shaky thumbs up, "yes sir…"

He nodded to Toa and turned back to the compound, the beginnings of a plan already forming inside his head. There was no cover between him and the compound all around for fifty yards, the instant he broke cover he would come under fire. Sam would be a big help by causing panic and such that might give him the time to close the distance. He had already told Toa to start shooting the moment he broke cover so that added another element to the confusion.

He shouldered his rifle and spoke one word, "go."

He sprang out of cover and shot the only alert man right between the eyes, the trooper slumped forward without even getting a shot off. The remaining troopers snapped off quick shots before ducking behind the overturned card table. Sam of course went through the table to get to the cowering troopers. An alarm started blaring and the front gate on the compound opened, GF marines started pouring out and came under immediate, long-range fire from Toa. Despite the distance Toa was accurately hitting the faces of every trooper she hit. Sam finished with the troopers behind the card table and flew through the middle of the crowd, bowling GF marines over and inadvertently slicing them open with wide-spread claws. Any shots that hit the metroid bounced off of the shiny shell on Sam's back. While the troopers were panicking about Sam in their midst he began to methodically execute them from behind with either a fist punching through the helmet, or twisting the necks fully around. About fifty of the troopers died before the flow of reinforcements stopped coming.

He stomped on the face of a downed trooper and finished the skirmish before waving Toa forward; when she got close she stopped in place for a moment, "what's wrong?"

She pointed at him and sounded woozy, "you're… covered in blood sir…"

He looked down at his hands, both of which were covered in dull, red blood. As were both of his feet and there was a splash of it across his chest. When he looked back up Toa was swaying as if she were about to be sick.

He walked over and guided Toa to the wall, "why don't you just stay here?"

The girl nodded gratefully to him and sat next to the wall, with her broken faceplate she looked just like one of the executed troopers at a glance. Toa was quite clearly hemophobic and there was going to be a lot more blood inside. He did a quick check on his ammo, one full clip left for the battle rifle and two spare clips for his pistol. At some point, he would have to either find another weapon or resort to using his fists for every confrontation. Maybe he could find something he could use inside…

He beckoned Sam forward after he entered the complex. Stark white metal was the norm for every hallway. Crates similar to the one he had survived the fall in were placed at regular intervals as a kind of makeshift barricade. Luckily for him, Sam was quite a good can opener. After passing through the second crate his foot kicked something and a small cylinder rolled away. He picked it up and noticed the red light slowly blinking on the device. It had a pin so he assumed it was some kind of grenade. Sam cut through a fifth crate and one of the 'grenades' was tossed by a GF trooper that promptly fled around the corner. He dove back through the crate and flattened himself against the wall, hoping that Sam had enough sense to do the same. There was a weak explosion and a flash of sickly green light. His shields took a huge hit and he felt his skin crawl… but he was alive. After waiting for about five seconds, he stuck his head around the corner… Sam was lying against the wall, now covered entirely in armor plates with the addition of two long, curving horns extending from the front. He moved slowly through and knelt next to the metroid.

He tapped the metroid, "Sam? Wake up."

There was a sputter and a bolt of electricity burst forth from between the two horns on the evolving metroid's body.

He sprang backwards, "ok… guess you're fine…"

Apparently the grenade he had acquired was some kind of nuclear grenade, smaller and dirtier than a HAVOK tactical nuke. No small wonder then, that Sam had evolved yet again. He didn't know how many times Sam would evolve before that was that but… considering how much more help Sam was as it evolved he considered just tossing the grenade at Sam and seeing what happened. After a brief moment he decided against it. The grenade was the only weapon he had besides his dwindling supply of bullets. Besides, that was no way to treat a friend.

After about five minutes Sam recovered from the concussion and flitted ahead with more zeal than ever. Instead of cutting through the crates, now Sam melted through the heavy-duty metal. After the eighth crate, Sam broke through to a room that slightly resembled the bridge on a UNSC frigate. He assumed that it was command central for the compound. The metroid came under immediate laser fire that bounced off wildly and seemed to only daze Sam. He pulled his metroid back through the crate and tossed the nuclear grenade through the hole. Ignoring the panicked screams he shoved Sam back around the corner. There was another weak explosion and he once again felt his skin crawl. His shields took a much smaller hit though.

After waiting a good five minutes, he cautiously stepped through the hole, ordering Sam to stay. Most of the consoles were fried due to the radiation burst but the one functioning screen had a still image of a Mark VI helmet along with a caption, 'execute on sight'. He laughed under his breath at that. Clearly, the Federation had a high opinion about themselves.

Before he could touch anything an alarm started blaring that reminded him of an air raid siren. He raced outside with Sam following close behind, pausing only to strip a few nuclear grenades off of the deceased troopers. He looked to the horizon… a Federation ship, high in the atmosphere, was slowly approaching… and the weapons on the belly of the ship were charging to fire.

Part 2a: Cosmic Fall

Samus stood on the bridge as the Spirit of Fire came out of slipspace above the Federation homeworld. The knot of despair from earlier had been replaced by grim determination. The view was awe inspiring… the Elite ships practically massacred the entire GF fleet without losing a single ship.

She noticed one GF ship low and not in the actual fight, "what is that ship doing?"

Cutter follows her pointing finger… and yells at the coms officer, "get the shipmaster on the horn! That ship down low is trying to kill the Chief!"

She doesn't quite understand, "what?"

Wallace answers her from behind, "that ship is readying to fire its weapons at the surface. The only reason a government would fire on their own planet is to get rid of something that they can't get rid of any other way. Ergo… that is the Chief they are trying to shoot at."

Out in the void an Elite ship detaches from the still raging battle and fires all of its plasma into the ship trying to deny them all John.

The Shipmaster appears on the video screen, "humans, we will deal with the rest of the fleet. You should go planetside and aid the Spartan."

Wallace spins her around, "time to go lassie!!!"

She follows Wallace at a breakneck pace to the hanger where practically the entire ship was loading up into pelican dropships.

Wallace turns to her, "this be where we part ways lassie."

She gives Wallace an astonished look, "you aren't coming?"

The pirate laughs, "not in one of those hay wagons! I found a more thrilling way to get down. Dark Samus and I will meet you on the ground; we're gettin a crash course in the Helljumpers!"

She watched Wallace sprint off… thinking that he was crazy yet again. She sprang into the back of the pelican and strapped in for the initial drop.

A marine next to her leaned over, "try not to puke on me alright?"

She swatted the marine on the back of the helmet hard enough to cause him to clasp his head in pain. This induced a chorus of laughter from the other marines. After the drop which jarred her just as much as before she undid the crash netting and walked forward into the cockpit. Something that resembled a steel coffin sailed past the window.

She gives an involuntary, "what was that?"

The pilot, a woman, responds in a southern drawl, "those are the Helljumpers… crazy bastards. Ya know it's an all volunteer outfit? They volunteer to get shot out of a figurative cannon down at a planet, in a drop pod with a twenty percent failure rate."

She looks out into the void at the steel coffins flying past, "… have any failed yet?"

The pilot turns a hard right to avoid one of the Helljumpers, "couldn't tell ya lady… but not from what I see in front of me."

She turns to head back into the hold, "thanks."

The pilot opens a private com channel with her, "no problem lady… but a piece of advice… don't screw things up with the Chief."

The prying nature of the statement offended her, "I most certainly don't intend on that."

The pilot gives her a nod, "just warning you. If you break his heart, just about every woman in the UNSC is gonna want your head on a spike."

She is stunned, "you to?"

The pilot sends the pelican down into the atmosphere, "hell yeah… you have any idea how many times I've fantasized about me and the Chief? He's every girls dream guy."

She opens the hatch back to the hold, "uh… thanks for the warning…"

The pilot closes the channel after saying, "no problem, the names Cassidy by the way, Cassidy Sharp."

She didn't know whether or not to take Cassidy seriously… but it was better to just be safe about it. 'Besides', she told herself, 'I don't ever intend to let John go.'

Cassidy broadcast to all of the troops in the hold, "alright marines! We're going in hot! So get your asses off of my bird."

One of the marines made the crack, "yes oh queen of…"

The marine was cut off when Cassidy caused the pelican to buck before settling to the ground.

Cassidy barks over the com, "I heard that, jackass."

All the marines and her pile out of the pelican and rush to the line of other soldiers that were assaulting a GF base.

Cassidy again opens a private channel with her, "yall call me when you need pickup."

She shuts the com and rushes to the line. The Federation troops were dug in up ahead and the marines were peppering them with bullets, to little effect.

She opened a board-wave com channel, "all UNSC marines, aim for the faces. That's the only way you're going to take them down."

With the help of her tip the GF troopers fell like flies before the marines charged forward and stormed the base itself. She would have joined them but she was more concerned about finding John.

Wallace opened a com line with her, "oy, lassie! Get your ass over here, we've found the Chief!!!"

Her voice took on a note of demanding, "where!?!"

The pirate got defensive, "easy there lassie, don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm sending you the coordinates."

She engaged her speed booster and ran for the nav marker in her HUD. Over grassy plains and past random skirmishes she ran, diverting from a straight path only when she would have run through the UNSC marines. In what seemed like seconds she arrived where Wallace and Dark Samus were supporting a group of marines that would apparently be of those Helljumpers that both the pirate and Cassidy had mentioned. She could see John on top of a GF compound brawling with GF troopers that were trying to shoot him and an evolved form of Sam. By the bolts of electricity that were flying on the roof she assumed that Sam had evolved to the gamma phase. Around the edge of the roof who she assumed to be Toa was taking potshots at the brawl taking place.

Between her and the compound there was a hastily erected structure that an army of Federation troopers was using to shoot at the Helljumpers, preventing them from getting to John. As she watched, Dark Samus shot a concentrated beam of phazon at the structure and only succeeded in blowing a hole in one section of the wall. Her dark twin slumped down as if exhausted. Wallace then popped up and pulled off one round from his carbine… he shot a grenade on one of the GF troopers and obliterated half of the entire structure.

She saw Wallace turn to Dark Samus, "sometimes precision is better than brute force, looks like you still got a lot to learn, lassie."

Dark Samus gives Wallace an almost… playful… shove and tiredly turns back to shooting the structure. Had Wallace really gotten her dark twin to like him? Either way, that was a question for another time. She shot over fifty missiles at the structure which, in addition to a rocket launcher wielded by one of the Helljumpers, destroyed the rest of the fortification.

One of the Helljumpers walked up to her and spoke in a thick German accent, "how nice of you to join us Frau Samus."

She didn't believe what she was hearing, "Adolf??? I thought you were a marine master sergeant."

The German lifted his helmet just enough to show his face before lowering it again, "I always said I was a master sergeant. I just never specified which UNSC branch I was in. I'm ODST to the bone."

Wallace charges past, "enough chatter! We got a Spartan to save!"

The pirate dives over the cover they had been using and starts to rush the compound. She looks over at Dark Samus; her twin shrugs and follows after Wallace.

There was a yell from the Helljumpers as they all followed, "OORAH!"

She smiled and joined the rush. John was waiting for her at the top of the compound and nothing was going to get in her way.

Phase 6: Rolling Thunder

John cracked the skull of the last GF trooper and paused to catch his breath. He'd been fighting GF troops like this for the last hour or so since he ran out of bullets. On the small rooftop he also couldn't use his grenades without killing himself and Toa. He saw the ODST's out on the plain demolish the prefab fort that a Federation dropship had left hours before. He saw Samus among those that had come to save him for a change (it was rather hard to _not_ see her in bright orange armor). Not the type though to let others do his work for him he got ready to go back down into the compound.

Toa stood from behind the AC unit she had been using as cover, "are… they all here to help us?"

He nodded, "the good old UNSC. More reliable than an M6D pistol."

Toa scuffed her foot on the stone roof, "will they… shoot at me?"

He beckoned Sam, "not after I vouch for you."

After giving the girl piece of mind he descended into the compound again with Sam taking point. He rounded the corner and found a group of four troopers that had tackled Sam and were trying to pry off his metroid's armor plates. He took exception to that and broke three out of the four necks, without the weight holding it down Sam fried the last one with a bolt of electricity.

A familiar orange suit rounded the corner and skidded to a halt, "John!"

Samus ran at him and threw her arms around him… then clubbed him on the side of the head, "I thought you were DEAD!!! Do you have any idea how long it took for me to put myself together after you ordered Adam to take me away…"

He stood there for a moment and just let Samus vent. He had known that this would happen the instant he had survived the crash of the station.

Samus started to trail off in her tirade, "and… you…" She slumped against him in relief, "I'm… I'm just glad you're ok…"

There was some applause from behind Samus, Wallace and Dark Samus were standing a short ways off.

Wallace was the one clapping, "bravo, bravo! Now just get a room and stop running around the bush."

He responded without thinking, "later, we have a fight to finish."

Dark Samus laughs, which sounded more like a cackle, "hear that Samus? The Chief has agreed on it after the fight."

He could feel Samus burning up even through both of their armor suits... or was that him? He brushed by Wallace and Dark Samus and exited the compound with Samus following close behind. There was a pelican waiting outside along with a Phantom dropship that the Elites used. The Arbiter was waiting for him next to a specter and a warthog LRV.

The Arbiter took two steps towards him, "it is good to see you well Spartan."

He shook the offered hand, "likewise."

The Arbiter gestured to the two vehicles, "come, there is an enemy convoy approaching the medical camp. The heavy vehicles are still on the way."

He walks over to the warthog, Samus steps up behind him, he turns to Samus, "any objections to letting me drive this time?"

Samus climbs into the passenger seat, "none whatsoever."

Adolf climbs onto the warthog turret, "come now, I'm still a doctor, those are my patients after this fight is done. I'd rather none of them die."

He hops into the drivers seat, "so would I."

He sets the hog rolling and was aware that the Arbiter had gotten into the drivers seat of the specter, Wallace was on the plasma turret, Toa was on the right side, and Dark Samus was on the left.

The Arbiter used the specter's boost to catch up with him, "Spartan, the convoy is on the far side of the ridge ahead. They have some variety of tank there."

He yells back, "we'll deal with it when we get there."

He pushed the pedal to the floor and the hog roared ahead, scattering small animals and the brush. As they drove he started to think about what an odd group had formed up… an alien, two phazon mutants (one of which was a pirate), an energy parasite, a traitorous GF trooper, an ODST/doctor, an intergalactic mercenary, and him.

Samus hesitantly looked over at him, "…are we really going to… you know…"

Adolf broke in before he could respond, "now is not the time to be discussing how things are going to 'happen'!"

The specter pulled even with the hog, Wallace made a snide remark, "lay off of em Adolf, neither of em have any idea what they'd be doing anyway."

Wallace flashed Samus a huge grin, "call it my… intuition."

Samus yelled back, "more like you hacked my private journal!"

Wallace put his hands up, "guilty as charged! But if only John knew what you wrote about him…"

Samus freezes… and her head drops against the dashboard out of humiliation. He took the remarks indifferently… but he did file the thoughts away… for later.

About five minutes later he shouts, "coming up on the convoy!"

The warthog and specter flew over the hill and split up, each moving down opposite flanks of the convoy. Unlike smaller bullets, the heavy slugs from the machine gun on the back of the hog tore through the trooper armor like it was tissue paper. Sam flew at one of the tanks and melted its way inside without being order to.

Samus facepalmed but kept shooting, "those tanks are powered by beta radiation…"

He drove the hog through a small crowd of GF troopers, "great… its going to evolve again…"

The tank exploded and Sam was now a huge, bi-pedal creature with two arms and a giant, toothed mouth. The arms were equipped each with a set of giant claws. As he watched, Sam spit a fireball out of its mouth and incinerated an entire file of troopers.

Samus shot the gunner off of one of the tanks, "your pet skipped the zeta phase and went straight to the omega phase."

He drifted the hog and used the side as a battering ram to crush two whole squads, "how much more can Sam evolve???"

Samus clotheslines a trooper that tried to board the hog, "if it isn't female that's as far as it'll go."

He tossed one of the nuclear grenades, "then I hope with all my soul that Sam is a male."

With Sam rushing right down the middle, crashing through the tanks, he was free to take a few more risks, was forced to break off less… in general just let Samus and Adolf tear the Federation troopers to shreds. He cast a glance over to the Arbiter… the specter was driving straight through the Federation army and the GF troopers were scattering before the specter like grass in a breeze. At the moment Wallace was shooting at a tank, aiming at the cockpit. Dark Samus shot a large lump of electric blue material at the same target and obliterated it. He could only imagine what snappy comment Dark Samus was making to Wallace. He heard a loud, familiar sound, when he turned his head back to the ridge there was a file of scorpion and wraith tanks flowing over the hill. The heavy rounds and plasma mortars started killing the Federation troopers at six times the speed the two vehicles had been.

A marine spoke over the com, "we'll take it from here Chief. You should head back to the CP, get some rest. God knows you deserve it."

Both him and the Arbiter turned their respective vehicles around and started to head back. This still did not stop the crew of each vehicle from pulling off a few parting pot shots at the remaining Federation troopers. The moment the cleared the ridge he heard an oath from the specter. Dark Samus had almost fallen off of the specter out of exhaustion. The oath had been Wallace trying to keep Dark Samus on the vehicle. All the pirate had succeeded in however was destabilizing his own footing and sliding off after Dark Samus. He drove the hog over to where the pair had fallen… Dark Samus was lying on her back and Wallace had fallen right on top of her.

He commented, "that looks vaguely familiar…"

Wallace slowly got up, "I hope it isn't too familiar… but I don't think the lady minded."

Samus laughs from the warthog, "and why might that be?"

Wallace slings Dark Samus over his shoulder, "that would be because she is unconscious. You forget how taxing it is for your twin to shoot phazon now."

He smirks beneath his helmet and drove away, leaving the two to climb back onto the specter.

Samus felt… conflicted…all the cracks everyone had made about her and John only made it worse. But on the flip side of the coin she felt intense… desire for John. She knew the feeling would never go away, and if she didn't do something about it… She felt like she would explode. She turned her head and watched him drive… even though she knew John returned her feelings it was still so… cold. She knew it wasn't John's fault though. The blame for his emotional suppression rested solely with the people that had 'modified' his body. Even if they did get to that special 'moment' she didn't know what to do. Sure she had had dreams about herself and random men but never actually 'done' anything with any of them… mostly because they never existed. John was the man she had always dreamed about but never know. How could she pass this by? She watched as John made a beeline for the showers.

She heard a deep voice behind her, "you are his?"

She turned and the Arbiter was standing about five feet away, "'his' what?"

The Arbiter replied matter-of-factly, "his mate."

She felt her face burning, "ah… well…"

The Arbiter nods, "I see…you need not say more."

The Arbiter walks back to where several other Elites were gathered, they were speaking in a bizarre language that her suit did not know how to translate. From what John had told her, she knew the Elites were a warrior society that placed honor above all else. She also knew that until he had been reunited with the three other Spartans that were still back at Earth, the Arbiter was really the only friend John had had. It felt… good… to know that one of John's few friends approved without making any lewd remarks. Of course she didn't know what the Elites were saying over there… but none of them were laughing. There was a pilot walking across the camp to her, a shock of short, red hair was tied back in a short pony-tail.

The voice was the voice of Cassidy, "well, well. What have we here? You waiting for the Chief to come out of the showers so you can ambush him?"

She took her helmet off and glared at Cassidy, "…no."

The pilot threw her head back and laughed, "I knew that. Just wanted to see how you'd react."

She crossed her arms, "…what do you want?"

Cassidy stops laughing, "right to business huh? Well, I can respect that. The marines are getting stalled at the command building. They keep calling for the Chief… and the call gets more desperate every few minutes."

She muttered under her breath, "damn… is John ever going to get to rest?!?"

Cassidy started to chuckle, "you really are concerned about big green… good. Guess I'm just plum out of luck. Anywho… you can tell your boyfriend that I'll be flyin him over to GF HQ."

She shoves her helmet back onto her head, "not without me you aren't."

Cassidy shrugs, "works for me. Now you might want to go get him before the other girls do."

She pauses, "…what?"

Cassidy chuckles again, "those showers are co-ed. Budget cuts and all that."

She panics and sprints into the showers. Around the corner John had backed against the wall, a towel wrapped around his waist. A crowd of similarly garbed women were slowly edging their way towards her Spartan. She pointed her laser at the roof and fired one shot. The crowd of women gave a start and turned to her, all of them gave a collective groan of disappointment as John edged his way around them.

John muttered to her as he slipped past, "thanks."

She took her helmet off and shot the crowd a glare before turning her back and following John out. The instant her back was turned a large volume of water cascaded over her head from behind. She whirled around and all of the women were holding the showerheads, grinning wickedly. It took a great effort on her part but she managed to turn around again and stalk out.

Around the corner John had almost finished getting back into his armor, only the helmet was left.

She handed him the helmet, "did you know that the showers were co-ed?"

John shook his head, "no… If I had I would have waited until we were back on board the Spirit of Fire."

She asked a question, then mentally beat herself for it, "you weren't… tempted?"

John looked at her and said, with a perfectly straight face, "no. I have someone better waiting on me after the fight."

She looks up at him in astonishment, "but… Adolf said that you…"

A grin crosses John's face, "Adolf forgot one thing. I've lived my entire life around marines. If you haven't figured it out by now they have the dirtiest minds out of any people in the universe. Whether I wanted to or not I learned just about everything there is to know about intercourse."

She looked up at John, flabbergasted.

John places his helmet on, "we have a fight to finish" when she started to ask how he knew, "command just told me."

Phase 7: Tying Off Loose Ends

John walked towards the pelican with confidence in his stride. He hadn't been lying with what he had just told Samus. Seriously, after one hour around marines you wanted to run to the nearest shower and scrub your ears. Johnson alone had made more remarks about a woman's body than most of the other marines together.

There was a red-headed pilot waiting for him and Samus on the ramp of a pelican, "glad to be flyin with you again sir!"

He returned the woman's salute with a nod, "again?"

Samus climbed into the pelican and shot over her shoulder, "she flew you around on the Ark. Her name's Cassidy."

Cassidy nodded, "yessir, I flew the other hornet when you were goin after the sergeant."

The memories from the Ark came back to him, "…right… you were the one that almost crashed into me…"

Cassidy's face turned blood red, "I'd just got my wings sir…"

He just chuckles and climbs into the hold, taking a seat next to Samus. She set a hand lightly on his leg, he gently covered it and held on.

Cassidy started to move towards the front, "buckle up ladies and gentlemen, this is gonna be a bumpy ride."

He turned his head and noticed several familiar figures sprinting across the grass to reach the pelican, "you might want to wait for just a minute."

Cassidy turns around and notices the same figures, "… if you say so Chief…"

In about thirty seconds Wallace, Dark Samus, the Arbiter, and several major Elites pile in and take their seats.

Wallace and Dark Samus were arranged across the hold in almost the exact same position as he and Samus, with the exception of the hand on Wallace's… never mind.

Wallace brought his carbine up to shoulder height, "you just can't get rid of us Chief. We're with ya till this is all over."

He looked over at the Arbiter, they exchanged curt nods to each other.

Cassidy broke the silence, "you monkeys ready to go yet?"

He begins to give Cassidy the go ahead but Dark Samus beat him to the punch, "yes we're ready! Get your ass in gear!"

Cassidy did not respond, but instead opened a private line with him, "is she always that bitchy?"

He glanced over to where Dark Samus was now chatting politely with both Wallace and the red-armored Elite next to her, "…it depends…"

Cassidy chuckled, "on what? The phase of the moon?"

He thinks for a moment, "…the wind."

Cassidy snorts and closes the line. As if to illustrate his pointed remark Dark Samus had just slapped Wallace across the face. However, even with the red handprint across the face Wallace was still laughing as hard as ever. Samus leaned against him; he subconsciously curled his arm around her.

Samus felt disappointed when Cassidy landed the pelican in front of the GF command structure. John had stood and removed his arm from around her shoulders. As for the building… the once proud building had been repeatedly shelled by so many rockets that the walls looked more like the surface of a moon than fortifications. This building never had been intended for military applications though. Despite the grand laser batteries that had adorned the high walls it had no way of sustaining itself and no way out except the front door. The issue with that for the GF was that the front door was covered by crack-shot marines. Apparently though the troopers inside had rigged quite an impressive setup inside. Either way though, John's metroid was being delivered by a separate pelican, and there was no way that any number of Federation troopers could stand against an omega metroid.

She walked up to where the marines had dug in, Toa was lying in the foxhole alongside hardcore marines and was not having a good time by the sounds of things. But when John walked by the hole and briefly paused, the marines shut their mouths pretty damn fast. There was a loud series of clicks and she looked to the door of GF command. A single trooper was walking from the building, unarmed, unarmored, and carrying a short white flag.

John slightly lowered his battle rifle and spoke to her, "Samus, you know their rules. See what this guy wants."

She stepped up and over the barricade to meet the man halfway. The man holding the flag had a tired, despondent look to his face. Like a man that had lost the will to live.

The flag-bearer's voice had the same despondent note to it, "I'm here to warn whomever is in command that the Federation leaders are inside… and plan to blow up the entire planet."

She was momentarily struck speechless. But, to emphasize what the man had said, the one working holo-screen appeared with a twenty five minute countdown. She took one quick glance and began to drag the man back to John.

She stopped dragging the man when she got back to where John was waiting, "well? Tell him what you told me."

The man looked up at John in absolute hatred, "…why should I save this monster?"

John looked down at the man lying on the ground, "… what did I do now?"

The man looked up at her Spartan, "up on the station… you killed her. My fiancé!!!"

John looked over at her, was there any way that… no. That was too much to hope for.

She knelt next to the man, "what was her name?"

A tear slipped from the man's left eye, "…Toa…"

John shook his head out of disbelief, whistled, and called out the name of the girl that had mostly tagged along up until now.

Toa popped up out of her foxhole, took one look at the man lying before John, and began to sprint towards him crying, "JIN!!!"

About half-way to her apparent fiancé Toa tore her damaged helmet off, loosing a shower of pink hair that managed to look like it had never been inside a helmet. She momentarily felt jealous of the girl's long hair. Despite years of trying she never was able to keep her own hair in order unless it was in a ponytail. Toa got closer and she noticed for the first time that Toa had red irises in her eyes… and here she was thinking that she had met all the kinds of people that there were to meet.

John knelt next to where Toa was practically smothering 'Jin' with affection, "look, not that I don't relate to this feeling Jin… but could you give us some details so we don't all die?"

Jin shoves Toa off of him, "of course… I'm sorry by the way."

John stood, "don't worry about it. Now… could you help us out?"

Jin stood as well, "the Federation leaders are gathered in the inner sanctum. Only the fanatics are left. The others have already fled. They have gathered all the phazon on the planet and rigged it all into a bomb. It'll destroy most of the planet in twenty minutes."

She looked toward the building, "we got that. Can you defuse it?"

Toa looks up at both her and John, "Jin specializes in explosives, if he can't no one can."

John nods and hands his side arm to Jin, "you know how to use one of these?"

Jin pulls the firing pin back and lets go, "I'll figure it out."

John gestures the Arbiter, Wallace, and Dark Samus forward, "we can't afford to wait for Sam. We're ending this NOW!"

True to his word, John picked up a shotgun and kicked the door in. John then quickly dived aside to avoid the shot from the tank that the GF troopers had managed to fit into the building. Dark Samus stepped in and shot the same lump of phazon into the cockpit and obliterated the tank. Despite visibly sagging from the effort Dark Samus kept up with the grueling pace John set. In fact… the pace more resembled a berserker charge rather than anything else. John paused the relentless pace only when the Spartan had to reload both of his guns. Of course the pace was quite reasonable considering that John didn't know how long it would take Jin to defuse the bomb. At the ten minute mark the group rounded a bend and came face to cockpit against another tank, how the troopers had gotten this one in she would never know. John waited until the tank fired and rushed the machine while there was a new round cycling into the breech. To her amazement John jumped onto the cockpit hatch and tore it off, sticking the barrel of his shotgun inside and pulling the trigger only once.

Jin yelled, "the sanctum door are right behind the tank!"

John took one look, nodded, and flipped the Federation tank over and around so that the barrel of the cannon was pointed right at the door. John disappeared into the tank for a few seconds… a single shot from the tank blasted the doors open into a thousand splinters. The shot continued onward and buried itself in the wall high above before detonating, sending a shower of stone down upon the Federation executives still in attendance.

Wallace walked in and raised his carbine in the air, "gentlemen!!! I am happy to inform all of you… that you are now prisoners of the UNSC… or dead. You decide."

One of the men in the high seats stood, "like you can disable the bomb and get all of us out of here before the rest of the Federation fleet is recalled. Your surprise attack caught us off guard, granted. But in a straight up battle the Federation is superior."

The Arbiter stalked in and aimed a carbine at the old man's head, "arrogant fool, our ships destroyed your fleet with no losses and our ground units have routed your own wherever we find them. You have lost, accept it."

The old man raises a hand, in it was a device that looked vaguely like a remote, "not yet. What I hold here in my hand is a remote detonator for the bomb in the center of this room. Should my finger press this button the bomb will detonate ahead of the ten minutes left."

The old leader stuck hid hand out over the railing above to mock them. John nodded to her. She took careful aim… and shot the old man's hand off. John caught the detonator and Jin began to work on the timer.

She thought to herself, 'this is too easy… everything is going right…'

As she thought a rock fell from the cracked walls and clanged off of her helmet. She looked up… all of the Federation leaders were gathering rocks from the destroyed walls and were hurling them down upon all of them around the bomb.

A small piece hit Wallace on the head, "ow… Chief, requesting permission to return fire."

A larger rock fell on John's head, "…permission granted…"

Wallace whooped and those on the ground with precision weapons began to pick off the hysterical old men by the dozens.

Jin yells from behind the bomb, "I did it! Bomb disarmed!"

John nods and opens a wide-band channel, "all UNSC marines… we win."

The man missing a hand dove off of the high balcony, "NEVER!!!"

They all watch him fall, fully expecting to watch an old man brain himself on the stone floor. The crippled leader falls into the open top of the phazon bomb.

She curses, "Damn, I knew things were going too well. Is it too much to ask for a mission to go off without a hitch just once?"

There was an ominous hissing from within the bomb.

Toa backs away holding the unarmored Jin behind her, "that doesn't sound good."

John yells, "Toa, get in the tank! Whatever is inside that pot isn't gonna be friendly."

Toa and Jin both follow John's orders. The hissing from the bomb now had changed into something that might have been called laughter. Slowly, ever so slowly, the creature rose from the bomb container. There was a crust of blue phazon covering the monster's entire body that remained rooted in place. It had long arms ending in wickedly curved hooks… and the face resembled something like a skull.

There was a moment of stunned silence… before the monster started wildly swinging the hooks in attempts to disembowel them all. Out of instinct she placed her scan visor upon the beast as she frantically ducked beneath a savage swipe of the monster.

Her scan finished and gave her some well needed advice.

She yelled so all could hear, "hit it in the mouth! Anything else will just daze it!"

John reacted sensibly, "Toa, the instant we stun it I want you to put a tank round right in the thing's mouth."

They all unleashed a withering volley of shots that only succeeded in angering the beast.

Wallace yells as one of the creature's claws comes within an inch of his neck, "this ain't workin Chief!!!"

John apparently has an epiphany, "Toa, shoot the thing in the chest! Samus, when it's dazed use your zero laser on the thing's mouth." He added over a private line with her, "don't miss."

The tank shell shot… and hit! She readied her zero laser… one of the creature's falling limbs clubbed her arm cannon into the floor.

Her eyes widened in horror as her shot discharged into the floor, "no…"

A second giant laser shot out and did hit the mark. As her suit fell to pieces she looked over to where Dark Samus was firing off a zero laser of her own. She turned to where the monster was dissolving, made sure of it, and began to gather the disparate parts of her suit. She crouched to pick up her chest plate and there was a loud gasp. Was there a hole in her zero suit??? She turned around… and almost died of laughter. Whereas her suit came off in pieces after using her zero laser... she had something underneath her armor.

Wallace coughed politely and covered Dark Samus with his long coat, "… none of you saw anything."

John shook his head, "… of course not…"

Toa's head popped up out of the tank, "what do we do now sir? Could Jin and I… go with you?"

John shrugs, "I don't see why not… welcome to the UNSC."

She turned and slowly exited the building, John not far behind. A lot of things would change now. She would likely never get a bounty job again at her usual rate… but then… did she really want to? She looked up and saw her ship flying towards her and set her bundle of armor down to wait.

John sat down next to her, "for now it seems, we have some time off."

She didn't respond, she didn't have to. Her ship landed nearby.

Adam opened the hatch, "a pleasure to see you again John."

John stooped through the doorway, "same to you Adam."

The computer turned its attention to her, "do you have a destination in mind Lady?"

She thought for a moment, "… set a course for Earth."

Adam does as she asked, "anything else?"

She smirked, "lock the door."

**End**


End file.
